Tim Farrell/The Star-LedgerJerry Reese said a new contract for Victor Cruz before he becomes a restricted free agent "could happen."

ALBANY, N.Y. -- On Thursday, Victor Cruz told reporters a new contract will certainly be welcomed, but it doesn't serve as his sole motivation. He has maintained that he will play out the final year of his rookie deal at $540,000 and take it from there.

Today, Jerry Reese didn't deny the possibility that the team can work out a new contract with his star wide receiver before he becomes a restricted free agent after the season.

"It could happen. All those options are open," Reese said. "I just think Victor is focused on being a good football player again. The contract situation will take care of itself."

Reese also said "all options are open" in regards to bringing either Deon Grant or Kareem McKenzie back.

"You never know what were to happen, but we have some young safeties we want to take a look at," Reese said. "Deon’s still out there and he did a really nice job for us last year, so we’ll keep those options open."

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A couple more highlights from Reese's 18-minute session with reporters today:

On Hakeem Nicks' progression:

"Hakeem is on schedule as far as I know from my trainers, Ronnie Barnes."

On training camp being quiet, maybe too quiet?

"Quiet is OK, but it doesn’t bother me to have a little chatter going into training camp. Actually I kinda like it a little bit when there’s a little bit of chatter and if it’s rocky a little bit. It keeps everybody on edge a little bit and actually I have a little bit of nervous energy because it’s too quiet. But I’m sure something will pop up sooner than later."

On what "dynasty" means to him, in the wake of Michael Vick's comment:

"I just think that’s a nice word for you guys to play around with. You could stretch it a lot of different ways. But dynasty, I don’t really know what is a dynasty. What’s a dynasty? I’m not really sure what that means. I think the teams are so evenly matched these days it’s hard for a team to quote “be a dynasty.” So it’s good to be able to talk about the d-word, but you know, you’ve got to get out there and play. I’m really not sure what the dynasty thing even means."

On him saying at the time that the 2008 team was better than the team that won the Super Bowl in 2007:

"The team I thought was our best team on paper was the team that went 8-8. Since I’ve been the GM, I thought that on paper that looked like our best team and we ended up 8-8, so you never know. You have to get out there and play. You have to manufacture some wins and injuries always come into play. So you never know until you get out there. Paper’s paper – that’s why you play the game."
On whether this roster is better than last year's:

"I think it’s a good roster. I think it’s a really good roster. It’s yet to be seen how good we can be. I really like the roster. I think we can be strong. I think we can be good again. But you have to do it. You can’t talk about it. You have to go out there and do it. That’s what’s important to us is to go out and prove that we are a good football team and we’re going to challenge and have a chance to win a lot of games this season. Hopefully we can qualify for the tournament and then, if you get in the tournament, like always, anything can happen."

On possible replacements for Dave Tollefson in the NASCAR package:

"Well, [Mathias] Kiwanuka always goes out and plays some end as well, so don’t forget about him as a fourth defensive end. You know, we have Justin Trattou. We have Adrian Tracy. Both young guys we expect to step out of the shadows and challenge for that fourth spot as well."